Governor Cuomo calls on districts to 'move' on Universal pre-K

Tuesday

Jan 21, 2014 at 3:35 PMJan 21, 2014 at 3:41 PM

Pauline Liu

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he wants to take Universal pre-K statewide as soon as possible. In his 2014-15 budget speech Tuesday, Cuomo proposed a plan to spend $1.5 billion over the next five years on the program.

“We'll work with school districts to create an implementation schedule,” said Cuomo. “Our saying to districts is, 'As fast as you can move, we can move.'"

Cuomo said the state will begin by reviewing the current standards.

“The state will pay for it — and the state will be proud to pay for it — let's put our money where our mouth is,” said Cuomo.

The governor also addressed the controversial Common Core Learning Standards and high stakes testing.

He called for “corrective action” for the embattled curriculum. He plans to assemble a panel of lawmakers and educators to review the Common Core and offer recommendations. The governor is also proposing the elimination of standardized tests for kids in grades K-2. While Cuomo said that testing is needed to measure student performance, he believes that “too much testing can hurt.”

“We shouldn't make 5-year-olds take standardized tests,” said Cuomo. “That's not how we learn.”

Cuomo is also proposing funds to build new pre-K and after-school classrooms, create an incentive performance program for teachers as well as a tuition-free SUNY/ CUNY program for top performing students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).

The budget speech was streamed live from the Empire State Plaza in Albany and viewed by more than 3,000 people. But as a result of technical difficulties with the audio feed, the first 15 or 20 minutes of the speech could not be heard by those online.